Buffalo Rising Online

Sure, build out to the street, restricted parking in back. Then local streets can host even more illegal parking.

I live around the corner on Cleveland, and because the city does not enforce parking regulations on Saturday or Sunday our street is (illegally) parked both sides all the way to Nardin. It's a problem.

It's wonderful that the "Village" is thriving. I feel lucky to live here. But with all of the new shops, we do need more parking.

Charles,

All the best neighborhoods in the best cities have the parking problem you describe. It is the kind of problem you be happy to have. The opposite problem is that no one comes to your neighborhood and you can park easily anyplace you like.

RonR - The city was unfriendly to me when I found about the skateboard park next door being "given" away to a well-connected developer. I agree with you about Pano's being able to build whatever he wants.

By the way the city stills owns the front half of the skateboard park. It was set up that way so no property taxes would have to be paid and the city continues to be liable.

This site, along with the wilson farms can and should be considered a whole for development AND parking concerns. It is one of the busiest segments of Elmwood and therefore draws the most people from outside the neighborhood. What about a real mixed use parking structure? One that has storefronts along the street and parking residences above.

two birds, one stone.

buffalostan - The City needs another Tim Hortons and why not on Elmwood. The Tim Hortons on Delaware and Hertle is always busy and besides the downtown location, Blackrock, University, I don't know the next closest one. Great idea. I was hoping that Tim Hortons could occupy the former Elmwood Sandwiches location; I'm think not having a drive through would hurt their business. Most of Elmwood is walking traffic anyhow.

Seriously...parking is a MAJOR issue...what is wrong with a mixed-use ramp as others have suggested??? People coming from outside the neighborhood need a safe place to aprk the car and doing so down side streets isn't going to cut it. I live in the neighborhood but I can promise you I would not venture down there to shop if i knew I would probably not be able to find parking...evil evil parking...I'm amazed no one has floated the idea of expanding metro rail to elmwood...expand metro rail, turn old parking meters into bike locks, get grants to free bikes and have the bird men print up pamphlets for elmwood...now that will get us a thriving elmwood village!

No Tim Hortons! that is a horrible idea for one of the most pedestrian areas in the city. Why work against what you have.. work with it! Memo to city: tax that lot to the buildable square footage.

There are a lot of people who won't go to Elmwood as often as they would like because of parking. I don't own a car and frankly hate the things. Unfortunately most people who drive get so flustered and mad when it comes to parking. if they can't find a spot they give up, not being from that area they feel uncomfortable driving up and down side streets to park. Sad truth. But at the same time using this opportunity to build a ramp to alleviate some stress (you can NEVER alleviate all of it), and give people a guaranteed parking destination would make a lot of sense.

You give them the ramp to park and let them walk from there. Destroying the need for individual properties (like Pano's) from using parking as an excuse to take down adjacent properties for parking. Tim Hortons on Elmwood wouldn't be such a horrible thing assuming they don't get a stand alone drive through business. Look at the Dunkin Doughnuts on Chippewa and Main. Might not be local but I don't seem to care. It fills the space and brings life to the corner. It is better than holding out for nothing.

I would rather have a couple major mixed use ramps along Elmwood than pockets of private parking eating away at the urban fabric of the street. Parking just like the roads that feed them should be considered a publicly regulated infrastructure. These individual private lots are never sufficient and only reduce the efficiency of parking overall. Look at downtown as an example. 50% of the area in downtown are parking lots but because they are almost all private lots, there is still nowhere to park for the casual visitor or anyone who wants to go to more than one place at a time.

I agree with sbrof. Some well-placed and well-designed mixed use parking ramps on Elmwood could be a real boost for businesses.

Do we know of that wilson farms site plus adjacent lot are even wide enough for a garage though?

The site is ~145 x 270' Very doable for a mixed use parking garage. The new Augsburger ramp, which was supposed to be mixed use until Paladino broke the contract and decided not too is 145'x230'

Plus it backs up against an existing alley which would help in circulation.

RonR maybe it was just an outdated building which if combined with the whole parcel can provide for a higher and better use and therefore more profit for the owner. I don't think this demolition is somehow a sign of Buffalo's problems. I agree with all of your problems but there are better, more explicit, examples of those issues than this.

How about the 500 block of Main street. Where the costs required to bring those structures to the NYS (international) code specifications means they sit vacant year after year without any hope an individual owner can do anything.

Perhaps, but observing places that are not as unionized I have seen that the vast majority of the construction is just as bland and meaningless. Florida, Virginia Louisiana (places I have been) are just about as uninspiring as they come. There is a larger problem with construction in America. It is the lack of clients who understand what a good design can do for them. Most clients (commercial especially) want the cheapest building so they can make the largest return on investment predicting they will just demolish and build new or move to the next exurb in 15-20 years when the building has outlived its lifespan

This is the against the understanding that a better design could reduce overhead, retain employees and attract a wider arrange of customers. Most chains rely on a constantly rotating workforce of unhappy people supplied by a brand that draws a constant supply of new people in from millions in advertising dollars. How long would a place like McDonalds go out of business if it wasn't for the throngs of pestering children brainwashed into liking the place before they ever have even eaten there.

Maybe not out of business but anyone who thinks about the food they are eating.. and most importantly has options that are better. (not available in a lot of areas) will usually choose to avoid it.

Here... 783 Elmwood Avenue - Elmwood Bagle and Sandwich Shoppe. Perfect Spot for Tim Hortons. No drive through, of course but that shouldn't stop anyone.

Maybe there should be nothing done with the space at 770 Elmwood. Possibly it should be turned into green space. The taxes are less if you plant grass instead of making it into a parking lot.

Here... 783 Elmwood Avenue - Elmwood Bagle and Sandwich Shoppe. Perfect Spot for Tim Hortons. No drive through, of course but that shouldn't stop anyone.

Maybe there should be nothing done with the space at 770 Elmwood. Possibly it should be turned into green space. The taxes are less if you plant grass instead of making it into a parking lot.

WAIT!!! Did someone mention a GAP wanted to build on Elmwood??? What happened to that? Please do not tell me people fought it, my heart could'nt take that sort of laughing jag...

I vote Parking Ramp. Maybe 3 stories with a ground level Storefront on the Elmwood side.

You need suburban money, you need people who live too far away to ride their bike to these shops if you expect to sustain the businesses, and keep the rents as high as they are. And what about the Canadians? They're used to following signs to locate parking ramp entrances in shopping districts. We need Canadians coming here instead of the Mall.

If this is the epicenter of Elmwood shopping you need a place to store all the cars. I'll go one step further and speculate that the visible parking lot is one of the reasons this area has been so successful. And it's one of the reasons that my aunt from West Seneca and people like her started shopping in this area and spending thousands each year. Parking can actually be a boon for businesses, especially when it is not a drab surface lot. Ignore, or eliminate parking at your own peril.

This lot borders Ashland and Elmwood, traffic congestion problems can be mitigated by using Ashland for either an entrance or exit to the ramp. Good Signage can help eliminate confusion for newcomers. This area is congested and frustrating during the Christmas season, a new, well designed ramp could make some sense out of the parking situation and encourage further development. And yes, we can have our cake and eat it too by putting a small storefront on the ground level of the ramp. This is actually an incredible opportunity, especially with increased Canadian tourism.

Biniszkiewicz - By 'accommodate their tenants across the street', I'm inferring you mean the property owner does intend it to be a parking lot for Spot, Brodo, Blockbuster? Considering Spot and Brodo are both investing in expansion into the record store space, it does makes sense they'd like that.

Where the hey is a small non-profit like EVA going to get the money to pay for the stage and space?

reflip how about the Tim Hortons in the Key Towers? Or the one that is going into the Liberty building. neither of them have parking OR a drive through.

I think by law, if the property owner is doing an expansion of the parking area that he will have to incorporate a bike rack of two as well. J Booth probably knows the details if this type of change in use would warrant it or not, but from what I remember reading it would.

then again we really don't know what they plan to do with this site so maybe this is a wait and see situation.

1 )Ramps are pricey but would work well here.

2) A unified parcel (joined with WIlson Farms) with a new buildout at the street and surface parking at the rear would also offer a win-win. A continuous pedestrian street thread and some additional parking. Similar to the lot on Forrest near Elmwood. If surface parking is be had, this is the least intrusive option for it.

I think one business that would do real well there, and be a big hit among USA/Canada, City/Suburbs, Women/Men, Black/White, Gay/Straight, pretty much unite the whole city....Mighty Taco!

4 soft shell xtra hot no sour cream large loganberry no ice please

Thinking about the construction of a parking ramp alone is only half the idea. When you roll in commercial, residential and other profit generating features then the construction costs are better aligned. Remember we are not building a ramp and comparing the costs of construction to the costs of a constructing parking lot. Instead we are building a building, that one of the uses of is parking. Different cost comparisons.

WhatAboutBob - Pres board's reasoning for not approving demo is posted online here in their Nov 29 meeting minutes. Tim Tielman said the building is (uh, was) a contributing factor to the alley, has (had) distinguishing characteristics, and provide(d) a buffer to something potentially historic.

15. 766 Elmwood Ave. Demolish 2-story masonry commercial structure. Application received 11/16/07.

DISPOSITION: A motion Not To Demolish

it is a contributing factor to Runway Alley and is one of the few intact alleys in the City of Buffalo, it has distinguishing characteristics of the neighborhood (under characteristics 1 & 9) and provide a buffer to a potential historic neighborhood, Ms. Brozek to send a separate communication to Commissioner Tobe stating same; was made by Mr. Tielman, seconded by Mr. Pawlak and carried.

Historic characteristics are as follows: 1) It has character, interest or value as part of the development, heritage or cultural characteristics of the City, state or nation; 9) It is a unique location or contain singular physical characteristics that make it an established or familiar visual feature within the City.

Atwater, r u kidding? Character, interest, value? What planet is Mr. Tielman from, anyway? Three-tiered parking with storefront lower level. Thank god it's gone.

Funguy - No even if I tried to kid about that, I couldn't outdo that direct excerpt I posted above which resulted from board member Tim Tielman's motion.

Pres Board meeting minutes are on the city’s web site here for 2007 (this building was decided at their Nov 29 meeting): Preservation_Board/2007ResultsOfMeeting

and for 2008 can be accessed from a link on left of that page.

I agree with WhatAboutBob.